Tony Blair cancels London book signing

More than half of the population of Minami-sanriku are still missing following the devastating Japanese earthquake.

The tsunami following the initial earthquake engulfed the small port town in the worst-hit Miyagi prefecture and washed it away, as the picture above shows.

Local officials have said that more than 9,500 people are unaccounted for in a town of only 18,000, situated just 80km from the epicentre of the original 8.9-magnitude tremor.

The death toll across Japan is currently rising all the time and is expected to be in five figures when a final tally is taken.

Aftershocks continue to rock Japan and around 1.5 million homes are still without a clean water supply.